Felicia, I really admire the bravery in your words and I always look forward to one of your pieces showing up in my feed. I agree with the verve of this piece but not the actionable steps.

I gave a private talk last night on the Manuscript Academy on how Medium is leading the creator economy out of the influencer economy. I am so tired of introverted artists getting swept away by the big mouths. So in order to empower my fellow introverts, I had to do something crass.

I had to talk about money.

I shared with the audience my flops that made nothing and exactly how much my viral pieces made. And it was REALLY hard to share that information because I knew it could come off as a humble brag instead of writing tips.

I really want creative people to be more open about how to make money as a writer. Big business don’t want artists sharing incomes for obvious reasons. That knowledge is power they don’t want the creatives to have. It’s time we took back that power.

But there’s a place to talk about making money on Medium and it is not Medium. Don’t shit where you eat. Give private talks offering tangible tips on how people can increase their earnings. Put it on your blog. Give tips on social media. Sure, make your own course if you have that kind of business acumen. Teaching others is honorable.

The problem with many of these courses is they don’t teach writing. They teach gaming the system. And that’s what I think you are really bristling about. People think there are shortcuts to learning how to write well. If you sell someone that myth, that is not honorable.